Kinky and Quirky
It was such a wonderful atmosphere at the show - the audience were so enthusiastic (and with a line up like this one who can blame them?!) Mark and Sarah looked after us all so well and made us feel completely loved and welcome, and we had a great time backstage too!
Mirror Picture! With Fran Fandango, Atheria Hart, Sarah, Laurie Hagen and Mark!
The Fabulous Fran Fandango ready to rock on stage!
On Sunday I headed back to London for an afternoon rehearsal for a new night I'm working on with a couple of friends - it promises to be an exciting show and there's no burlesque! It's a live Jazz music night and I'm going to be singing! Singing more this year was something I really wanted to do: even though I trained as a singer, I'm not really known for it and as it's something I'm passionate about it's something I want to do a lot more of.
So... Monday was an event I'd been looking forward to for such a long time: visiting the Tower Of London for a private tour, a meal in the private Yeoman Warders Bar, and witnessing the Ceremony of the Keys with the Cabaret Family!
Gathering at the Tower of London
At 7:30 we met with our group, organised by the gorgeous Slinky Sparkles, outside the Tower (apparently people were taking sneaky photos of us all looking glamorous!) for a tour by Barney, one of the Beefeaters at the Tower. He took us through the history of the Tower of London including some gruesome stories of beheadings and torture, past Traitors Gate and into St.Peter ad Vincula; 'the saddest spot on earth' where those who were executed at the Tower were buried. Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey are all buried under the altar!
The axe that beheaded Katherine Howard! The *actual* axe!!
After the tour, we were taken to the exclusive Yeoman Warders Club where we were served Fish and Chips and took full advantage of the bar! I could have chatted to the Yeoman Warders all night, they had such fascinating tales, and Barney, our guide, certainly knew how to spin a yarn! Apparently the name 'Beefeaters' is not, and has never been, an official term for the Yeoman Warders, has never been written down as such and no one is completely sure where the name comes from! According to Barney, the closest theory is that, in the distant past part of the Yeoman Warders salary was in a ration of fresh meat as meat was expensive and not regularly available to the poorer parts of society, so the nickname of 'beef-eaters' stuck!
Eating and drinking with the Cabaret Family!
After our meal, we were privileged to witness The Ceremony of the Keys - the oldest surviving ceremony of its kind anywhere in the world: the locking of the gates of The Tower of London. It has been carried out at 10pm every night without fail for 700 years, except for one night during the blitz when a bomb was dropped onto the green of the Tower, delaying the ceremony by nine minutes! It was such a surreal, once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch this ancient ceremony being carried out then go and sit in a pub surrounded by a thousand years of history.
At the Yeoman Warders Club! With Ronnie, Joe Morrow, Missy Fatale, Carmen, Sophia St. Villier, Slinky Sparkles, Taz, Coco DuBois, Josh and Papa DuBois!
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